Whenever people reach for one of the government’s cast iron achievements, one that everybody loves, Sure Start is always mentioned. Why is it that Sure Start is just so good?
Of course it is partly because it brings together the services that parents need in one place, and delivers them effectively. But also because Sure Start has created a new kind of public space that is popular and useful, that builds community and social capacity. This is not just a convenient side effect of one policy, it is a pointer to all future policy. It shows us how renewing public spaces can renew people’s commitment to social provision.
That sort of social embedding of policy is crucial to realising our vision of the good society, of community and civic engagement and individual fulfilment. As we expand the capacity of the state, this sort of model will help us to expand the capacity of society along with it. And we know it works. We cannot contract for the public realm; we have to build it.
So how about a new generation of civic centres? New sorts of public space that have people in them, that are popular and useful and that provide real community infrastructure and a positive interface between Government and citizen centred on shared goals. Places where we can enable the good society.
What will this new generation of civic centres be like? United under a common brand, they will all be different. Each will respond to the needs of their location and the surrounding community and the logic of linking up services on the ground. In every community, civic centres will be places where all citizens go to engage with the state and each other, not simply better designed places for the poor to access services.
Where to build them? Everywhere. And especially in public space that already exists but has failed to keep up with changes around it, that needs reinventing if it is to survive. Public libraries surrounded by office blocks that would otherwise be sold off for Starbucks, could stay in the public realm – and sell coffee at the same time. Grand Victorian Town Halls need to adapt to a new sense of civic space. Parks that have too often become marginal space need to be recreated – and they need to attract enough people into them so that no one feels intimidated by other people’s leisure – because that’s how space works: five young people simply hanging around in an empty park are intimidating, but add children and pensioners and adults all doing different things in the same space, and the problem vanishes.
What will the centres have in common? The things everyone wants – starting with a small café or restaurant – public space needs people in it (and queuing doesn’t count). Then free internet access. And the one stop shop – leaflets and a phone for calls to government departments and agencies. And advisers – at the very least to point people in the right direction, but ideally to sort them out with whatever they need. Notice boards and rooms for local groups and societies should be part of the mix, and wherever possible, access to health and healthy living advice.
And what about differences? They should flow organically from where we build the centres and their core role.
Say we build a new neighbourhood nursery in a residential area. Space is expensive and at a premium locally, so build it on land we already own: in the corner of a local park. The nursery delivers high quality childcare spaces in a great location – now someone needs to make sure the buses stop there. After that, a coffee shop is an obvious start in the park, with some outside seating for the summer – close enough and with a decent line of sight to upgraded play areas to keep an eye on children at the weekends. Internet access, advisers and the one-stop shop can all go in and around the coffee shop.
A neighbourhood nursery should have an obvious focus on the needs of young families – help with tax credits, and perhaps a visiting nurse, and since the parents are in work, advice on flexible working and employment rights. But a coffee shop in the park can expect a fair bit of passing trade from older people. Walnut cake and light lunches, then, but also advisers who can help with the Pension Credit, access to energy efficiency advice and grants, some rooms for clubs and societies – there is already a nurse to give health advice, but perhaps the beat constable might drop in for a cup of coffee and a chat each week?
And while we are building in the park, the new centre should have a Park Warden’s office – if the warden doubles as a caretaker for the building, perhaps a small flat as well so they can live on site and make sure the new centre isn’t vandalised or burned down.
The centre will need some storage space for equipment for after school sports and homework clubs for the older brothers and sisters of the children in the nursery. In a radical departure, the nursery will offer childcare that covers the time most people actually have to work, and by teaming up with local schools, positive afternoon activities so our parents can collect all their children from one place at the end of the day. (Naturally, the Park Warden, some of the staff in the nursery and some of the advisers and the after school club co-ordinators are National Service volunteers).
What about a different model? A library in an area that’s mainly offices, and which doesn’t get enough business to be viable? Transform it into a lunchtime centre for workers – lunch, tax credit and childcare advice, trade union and employment advice, a counter for simple banking transactions and a skills centre, offering information on education and training, and delivering some courses on site at lunchtimes and in the evenings. And a municipal sports centre gets a café, a nurse and mini NHS walk-in centre, a smoking cessation service, and the one-stop shop. That way people referred to the smoking cessation service are already in the gym when they go to their first appointment, and passing trade at the NHS centre can get dedicated fitness advice as a natural part of the process.
And to go with these new civic centres with diverse and locally responsive elements, but united under a single brand, how about a civic account to go with them? A small universal core monthly entitlement, that you could use towards childcare, or the gym or education or training courses or just a free lunch or a cup of coffee. Of course you could top it up if you wanted to, or your employer could. The Government could match some of those top-ups or make its own direct additional contribution – through the benefits system or the tax system. The account would have different strands – a central general account and secondary elements that could only be used to pay for a single service – childcare or education and training, say. And to boost take-up and encourage people to use more of the range of services on offer, payment through the account is cheaper than with cash.
Civic centres like these, and a universal entitlement to ensure that everyone uses them would provide more than a service: they would be a bricks and mortar demonstration of our vision of an active state and a good society in step with each other. That vision that should be well within our ambition for a third term. And once we’ve built them, everyone will know there was a Labour government here, and no Tory will dare knock them down. Which is a working definition of progress.